'Immoral!': Google refuses UK trial over iPhone tracking

Google has challenged a lawsuit over claims that it secretly tracked iPhone users on the basis UK courts have “no jurisdiction” over the case. The plaintiffs have slammed Google for its attempts to strike down the case, calling their behavior “immoral”.

A group of UK citizens have filed a lawsuit against the internet
giant for illegally tracking their browsing habits through Safari
2011 and 2012. The plaintiffs claim that Google installed
internet tracking software (cookies) on iPhones, iPads and
desktop versions of the Safari browser.

Google says that the plaintiffs suffered no harm and were
“mistakenly” tracked. The company’s lawyers are calling
for the lawsuit to be brought to California, where the company is
based. Google’s attempt to move the lawsuit was met with furor by
the plaintiffs, one of whom called the internet giant
“arrogant and immoral”.

“Google’s preference that British consumers should travel all
the way to California to seek redress for its wrongdoings is
arrogant, immoral and a disgrace,” said Judith Vidal-Hall,
one of the claimants. She added that the supposed crimes were
committed in the UK and violated British laws, and as such should
be dealt with by a UK court and “not in a jurisdiction that
might suit them better”.

Google says that it is asking the court to re-examine the case to
see whether it meets the standards to go to trial.
Earlier this year when the case was given the go-ahead by a
British judge, Google’s lawyers claimed that the data gathered
was not “private and confidential”, and therefore Google
had no legal obligation to protect the user data.

Last month Google was forced to pay a fine of $17 million to 37
US States, where it had been accused of infiltrating Apple’s
browser to track internet users’ online activities. Google said
the monitoring of internet users was an inadvertent side effect
of an attempt to make it easier for people to recommend
advertisements. In August last year Google was also obliged to
pay out $22.5 million over the same case by the US Federal Trade
Commission.

Furthermore, Google has come under fire for illegally gathering
data through its Street View program in the US. The cars that
took the 360-degree images of streets and transmitted them back
to Google also picked up emails, passwords, and web histories
from open Wi-Fi networks.

Google had to pay a fine of $7 million and was ordered to delete
all of the data it had illegally gathered. The internet giant
argued that any personal data that was gleaned by their vehicle
was done so unintentionally and is now inaccessible.